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Well the Big Day has come and gone. It was so much fun! You know the event planner in me enjoyed so much making things for his Big Day!! So I decided to post on some of things I did for his Birthday Party as well as some other fun things that I found around town or online! If crafts bore you, then skip this one!

My inspiration came from a T-Shirt that my Aunt Karen (aka: Auntie Cupcake) bought Titus for Christmas.I loved the shirt so much that we themed the entire party around it. I found an etsy shop that sell items just like it. In fact the store my Aunt Karen bought this shirt from, I am pretty certain the etsy shop owner must sell her stuff there. So the first find was the invite which we ordered from Mix Book. My Aunt Karen came all the way from Texas (AGAIN!) and took T-man’s One Year Shots. We used the shots for the invite and at the party! She did a great job!

Front of the invitation w/ labels and envelopes.Back of InvitationOnce I got the invite I wanted all the colors of the party to match the invite. My Aunt found some great balloons at Captain Party that we used for the photo shoot. So I decided to bring those back, but just streamlined the colors a bit and added another texture color for dimension. I decided on Orange, Yellow, Green Swirl Balloons and then Brown w/ Polka Dots as the main color theme. I loved it!I The balloons make me happy and still do as I look at them while I am typing this. Aren’t balloons so much fun?Since I added the brown polka dot balloon I wanted that to continue through the party theme, but I could not find the exact style brown paper with white dots for placemats, etc. So I made them myself with a stencil and white stencil paint. Actually it took me maybe an hour while I watched The Bachelor or something to make 20 sheets.Once I had that down. I decided I wanted to start researching cake ideas. I really wanted to do a smash cake just cause I like the word SMASH CAKE. I mean doesn’t it roll of the tongue so deliciously? Anyway so I googled away and found this cake and these cupcakes for the rest of the party guests.

Smash Cake IdeaCupcake IdeaI sent the pictures of the cake ideas to one of my best friend’s neighbors Janelle Edlefsen who has her own Cake business called RAVE Cake Design out of Salem, VA. (ravecakedesign@hotmail.com). She did a phenomenal job of creating as close a duplicate as possible in the colors that matched his invite! I was floored!!

Actual Smash CakeActual Monster CupcakesI was so excited when they arrived at the party!

The next thing was finding Monster Images…I really wanted to have Silly Monster Stuff everywhere, but I kept it pretty under control in my personal opinion! HAHA! Anyway, I found a few ETSY shops that had pdf files you can purchase and print yourself it was perfect for me, because it saved me a step! So here is what I found…Pin the Eye on the Cyclops…I found the party hats and name tags for the treat bags at this ETSY shop. They also had coloring sheets and extra circles with silly monsters on them.

Going this route saves you a ton of cash and you get to use your creative crafty side too! So I highly recommend ETSY Shops for things like this. Once I made those I have a “Blog Friend” that inspired me to do a couple more things. So I made some banners for our game, craft, welcome entrance and cake table! So I printed out circles with each letter and cut those out and glued them on ribbon. I think there is a Cricut Machine that would do this for me but I don’t have one of those so I cut them out myself.Next I wanted to find some items for the Gift Bags. I just used a brown paper bag and cut the top of with Pinking Shears to give it some monsterness. Added the ETSY shop tag and included these adorable lollipops from Oriental Trading Company. Then I found some monster thimble puppets and staying in the Monster Theme I included Glow-In-The-Dark bracelets.I found the Thimble Monsters in the party section at Target and the glow bracelets at Captain Party where I got the balloons. Next I found these frame holders at Michael’s (another suggestion from my blog friend). I clipped pics on both sides and use them as centerpieces on the tables at the party. I also wanted to have a “Memory Piece” from Ti’s Birthday to put in his 12×12 coffee table book I am working on for his First Year. I thought I could just slip it in the back for him to have as a keepsake of the day. So I went to shutterfly.com and printed out a 12×12 mostly blank page with Ti’s Birthday Pic in the corner. That way everyone could leave birthday wishes for him with a Sharpie. I placed it on the present table and everyone signed away! One of my favorite things that I came up with was making your own Tickle Monsters! My husband builds puppets for a living so we have plenty of fur laying around! So all I had to find were the gloves and the eyeballs! I made this sign to hang over the table. I found the gloves at macys.com . They were on clearance so they cost me next to nothing for a big bundle of them. I cut the tips off with pinking shears so you could see your fingers. Then I cut out pieces of fur from my husband’s puppet fabric stash. I found the eyeballs at Michael’s. Then you would glue them all together to make this!There was nothing cuter than seeing the kids run around tickling each other!

That’s it on the crafts! I had a ton of fun doing all these things for my little guy. He is a little young to enjoy it this year, but we wanted to celebrate with all our friends and family who helped pray with us, support us and love on us, when we didn’t think we would ever be able to have children! So this party was as much for them as it was for Titus.

It’s so hard to believe Titus is nearly a year old?? I just can’t understand how it has flown by. At the same time it seems a life time ago that he was so very little and tucked in the crook of my arm. Now he is mobile, spunky and frankly WILD!

Compliments of Auntie Cupcake

I mean this picture was taken the first day of his life in the hospital. My Aunt Karen came all the way from Texas to be there for the birth and thanks to my body being in labor for 42 hours she made it with plenty of time to spare. She set up a make shift studio in the hospital room which happened to have hardwood floors just like our house…weird! Anyway, he’s a true newborn in this shot, sleeps anywhere and oblivious to all that is happening around him…so then flash forward to almost a year later and my Aunt by unforeseen circumstances was able to be here again to take Ti’s one-year old pics! Look at that big boy! He is completely awake and completely aware of all the lovely attention he is getting. SUCH A HAM! AKA: Twinkle Toes! Auntie Cupcake got to experience the WILD and WONDERFUL Titus Andrew Hatter (nod to the West-Virginians). So…the next 9 days leading up to T$’s birthday are truly gonna be bitter sweet. Everything changes from here. He is evolving into the little person God created him to be and we get to be active participants in this Creation’s life. Pretty amazing I think, but we also can’t help but want him to stay Teeny Tiny forever and ever.

But alas they grow and the fun grows too! We are so blessed beyond belief to be able to have this little guy and are so happy to celebrate his first year! Lots of pics to come of the Big Day!

So, last night Ti had his first ER visit. He had been working on a cough during the day and in the evening felt a little warm and his temp was running about 100.6. We gave him Tylenol and put him to bed. When we headed to bed at about 11:45…we hear little man coughing over and over again. Progressively it turns into a BARK more than a cough. So of course we have our ears pinned to the monitor as we progressively get more and more uneasy about our little man’s condition.

At 2:00am he cries out as if he is in pain…my gut told me “spiked fever” and I was right. Yep his temp was 103 and he was deliriously pitiful. At 2am you can’t think straight. You are exhausted and your baby is sick…so we packed ourselves up and headed to the ER. Now could we have gone to a smaller hospital that would have had much less of a wait time? YEP! But…the mother in me wants the best care possible and the hospital we went to has a PEDS department. So we arrived at 2:30am and were not seen until quarter to 6am.

What an awful night for little man. We brought the computer and his favorite DVD and that bought us some time. At one point he fell asleep on my chest which was probably the greatest moment ever…I just wish it was not under these circumstances, but I guess you take “Baby Snuggles” where and when you can get them. Finally we were seen and confirmed that he has “Croup” and a Fever. Hmm…was it the right decision to go to the ER for this? Well “Big Picture” we probably could have waited to see if the Tylenol we gave him was effective in lowering the fever at home and then go if it did not…but when it’s you 1st baby who is less than a year old…I mean come on! I think we would have all gone packing at 2am to the emergency room. So we got home, gave T a bottle and headed straight to bed for 2 hours. Then awoke to the day and went and got my hair done, took special care of T, took him for a walk outside (doc’s orders), made cornbread muffins for our church gathering tonight and survived the day…all with a little help from a friend I like to call Starbuck’s 🙂

So yes you can survive on 2 hours of sleep. With a little help from “above” 🙂

Well it has been a bit since I have been on here…lots of busy things happening the past several weeks. Thankfully I got to finish up the craziness with a much needed Girls Overnight with of some of my Best Gals!

We got to go to dinner together, walk around downtown, stay in the executive suite (thanks to Renae) in our favorite hotel in town, laugh till we cried while playing Apples to Apples, listen to each other in the darkness of the night SNORE, eat a lovely breakfast together, get massages and shop! We ended the date together at our favorite cupcake shop sitting outside on a rare sunny afternoon! What a wonderful time it was…no one wanted to go back…until we saw our sweet babies!

My little valentine…

His valentine gift from Mimi…

Our Valentine’s Evening ended late at night after little man went to bed…a yummy dinner a little wine and some incredible chocolate covered strawberries from Shari’s Berries…

Just when I thought things had turned around…Well, on Tuesday night I was feeling like something was sitting on my chest and on Wednesday morning it had only increased and I was having a hard time taking a deep breath.

Now flashback to 10 year old Jessie. When I was 10 I was diagnosed with severe asthma, it was a crazy story, I almost died and all that, but in the end I survived and spent the next several years taking lots of medications, inhalers and breathing treatments every night. In fact I went to summer camp for a couple years at a place called Camp Luv A Lung (and asthma and cystic fibrosis camp). It was a huge part of my life.

But in middle school I started running and continued in sports and running through high school. Eventually I was able to get off all of the meds. I have had some occasional seasonal issues but nothing like when I was a kid…

Needless to say, the experience I was having starting on Tuesday night was something I could not put my finger on but felt familiar. So my gut told me to go to the doctor. My good friend Renae watched Titus for me while I went to the doc.I waited 2 hours at the Urgent Care Center to even be called back. I seriously considered standing up and fake fainting to be taken back faster, but I was patient and just kept my cool. Once back there, I explained what I had been experiencing and the PA that was seeing me took me very seriously. She knew immediately what I could not put my finger on. I was having an asthma attack!!! I completely forgot what it was like to experience that! She took my pulse/ox level which was around 75. I blew on a peak flow meter and then was given an albuterol breathing treatment. Another peak flow test and pulse/ox level of 98, confirmed what had been happening. So here I am having childhood flashbacks all over the place as I have an inhaler, prednisone and some old tricks that I recalled from my childhood to get my lungs back in shape. I also went home with a trusty Z-Pack to get any bacteria out of the equation.

So who knew I was going to wake up yesterday with a blast from the past. Basically this tells me that I am SOOO out of shape! So it’s time to get exercising again! I guess I will start by cleaning my house! We are going out of town tomorrow and my mother -in-law is coming to our house to dogsit! Gotta get to work! Have a great weekend!

Well it seems we might finally be back on the mend here at the house. Titus finally seems to be “SNOT-FREE” and Mommy is close behind.

If you live in Virginia then the overall constant FACEBOOK status of most of my local friends has been referring to illness of some kind. Despite Titus not being in daycare, it has not protected us this time from the voracious cold that has taken over the eastern state of VA. It hangs on for dear life and it has taken quite a bit of BLUE BULB usage and saline drops and steam showers and patience to get through this one. The house is a disaster, dishes backed up, floors need to be cleaned, toys bleached, etc. but I am so glad to be on the other side of the “nasties”.

Amidst all of the crud we had a very exciting day last Thursday. Philip’s brother Sean and our sister-in-law Alison gave birth to their third son Levi Riley Hatter! He is adorable! (From what I can tell from pictures since my cold has held me back from meeting him in person.)

We are excited to welcome this little guy into our family. Philip got to go to the hospital and meet Little Levi, and I am super-jealous about it! Soon I will get to hold a fresh new baby in my arms and tell him how sweet he is in person!

Phil is working for his brother this week at the frame shop while he gets some much needed bonding time with his new son. So it’s me and Ti this week. We will see what we can get accomplished together. We are heading out on Friday for the DAVIS FAMILY CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION. Finally, we always have to delay our Christmas together since my Dad is in retail and we have to wait until after the Christmas season is over. So I am looking forward to visiting with the family and can’t wait to post about it with lots of pics! Hope you have a great week!

So the basement updating has come to a minor halt around here as the HOUSE has fallen under the SICK SPELL. It started with Titus having some sniffles on Saturday night and by Sunday morning after a restless night of sleep he went full tilt into a NASTY COLD. Poor thing was such a trooper as we lugged him around all day to Church and other activities that we were committed to. He went pretty much napless all day and then at 6:30 passed out!!! Then yesterday afternoon I felt it creeping upon me and by the evening I was miserable! I awoke on the couch this morning (since I was politely kicked out of our bedroom by the hubs for fear of spreading the disease) and my throat is on fire, head is going to explode I am sure of i, and if I have to blow my nose one more time I might self-combust. Can you tell I hate being sick? Needless to say Philip is having to take care of both me and Ti and it has been a treat for him I am sure. So hopefully we are on the mend and will be back in action to finish the basement soon! One thing you have to learn here is sometimes you have to take time to recoup and finish products later when the little ones (and big ones) are sick.